The Baby Boomer Bomb

a reply to: toysforadults

I left my home at 18. Never had to get help at all (well except after my first divorce, couldn't even afford to eat after what the court did to me then back then). Now, my oldest son is bleeding me dry, he is also doing the same to my mother. He is 24 years old and we take care of him and his girlfriend and their child. It's kind of sad but they just don't seem to have motivation or something.

a reply to: Fools

I actually think this idea of the nuvlear family is a major part of what the youth are rejecting. My fruend is Assyrian and in their culture they are much closer with their families. For them they dont expect their kids to move out right away and when they do they help them get on their feet.

We are seeing a masssive rejection of the money motivated figure out loser mentality on a societal scale.

originally posted by: toysforadults
a reply to: Fools

Pensions are unsustainable period thats why the market has largely stop using them

Carpenters union still has them but I bet ya it doesnt last

The carpenters union isnt nearly as big as it used to be and is already in the red. The problem is we dont build as much as we used to so there isnt as much money coning in as going out

In my state all of the local union halls collapsed into 1 regional hall

Unions have died out because the workers demands have increased to over what the market can sustain. That is why just about the only big unions now are government unions because they rely on taxes to foot their demands.

originally posted by: toysforadults
a reply to: Fools

I actually think this idea of the nuvlear family is a major part of what the youth are rejecting. My fruend is Assyrian and in their culture they are much closer with their families. For them they dont expect their kids to move out right away and when they do they help them get on their feet.

We are seeing a masssive rejection of the money motivated figure out loser mentality on a societal scale.

I agree, that and a culture at large that presents stupidity as morality. Western schools are a bit insane as well. More focus on feelings than learning actual skills.

a reply to: Fools

The workers get nothing out of the unions now

The carpenters get 48 an hour and take home 28

At max rate

So the union gets 20 an hour to pay for the benfits and pensions

Not only that but due to the fact that the market is so competitive because of an abundance of cheap labor the union has to subsidize its own jobs

So what happens is part of that 20 an hour goes to kickbacks for the companies that bid on union jobs to hire the union otherwise they can get the same work done at a fraction of the cost with 10 an hour apprentices

a reply to: Fools

I agree with you there.

I think this money money money is everything its the only thing that matters has a negetive affect on everyone

Look at drug use its exploding and its because unless you make a certain amount of people look at you as a loser

So people turn to drugs, their family rejects them for not maling enough money they are saddled with debt from the lies of higher education with little to no future

Boom heroin epidemic

originally posted by: Bicent
a reply to: SkeptiSchism

Ya I edited it. Thanks for the reply thou, I forgot to add nightmare inflation.

I honestly think thou the milenials will end up in the draft, nothing personal but our education system and culture produced this generation and honestly in the end of the debate, it’s our fault...

Most millennial's are too old to be drafted. Selective Service is for those between 18 and 25, milennial's currently range between 18 and 35. With every passing year fewer are in the draft range.

a reply to: Aazadan

A large swath of us are war veterans already

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: ladyinwaiting


I'm in the process of trying to hire my eventual replacement. Someone I can bring up, train, and eventually replace me.


Sad thing is, these younger folks can't seem to keep up with a fat old man.

A year or two ago you were posting here that you were offering $80k/year to someone who would be on call 24/7 and work 80+ hour weeks. Why would anyone do that, when any reasonable work will pay you 100k/year base, plus RSU's for 35 hour weeks?

originally posted by: Aazadan

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: ladyinwaiting


I'm in the process of trying to hire my eventual replacement. Someone I can bring up, train, and eventually replace me.


Sad thing is, these younger folks can't seem to keep up with a fat old man.

A year or two ago you were posting here that you were offering $80k/year to someone who would be on call 24/7 and work 80+ hour weeks. Why would anyone do that, when any reasonable work will pay you 100k/year base, plus RSU's for 35 hour weeks?

You live in fantasy land dude. Any reasonable work pays 100k a year?

Come out of dream world back to reality

originally posted by: Aazadan

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: ladyinwaiting


I'm in the process of trying to hire my eventual replacement. Someone I can bring up, train, and eventually replace me.


Sad thing is, these younger folks can't seem to keep up with a fat old man.

A year or two ago you were posting here that you were offering $80k/year to someone who would be on call 24/7 and work 80+ hour weeks. Why would anyone do that, when any reasonable work will pay you 100k/year base, plus RSU's for 35 hour weeks?

I'd go there then, if that's what they pay for folks just out of college.

By all means, if you can get better, go do it.

a reply to: ladyinwaiting

I never saw that or experienced that and I entered school in the early sixties. I wasn't even considered a baby boomer originally. At first the baby boomers were those born between 1945 and 1955. I was born in 57. Then some time in the seventies they realized the returning vets were still adding to their families and the baby boomers included those born up to 64.
There were always lots of kids around then but the only ones getting half days in school were the kindergarteners. As far as I know kindergarten is still only half a day.

originally posted by: ladyinwaiting
I heard a talking head on the news this morning, (a Republican) say "Everybody is benefiting from the rise in the stock market even if it's just a 401-K". It struck me as condescending. Does it you? I'm so happy that people's 401-K's are finally climbing, I really am. But the way he said it.... Almost to dismiss it as unimportant. I didn't like it so much. Is it just me, or does it strike you that way?

69% of working Americans don't have 401k's. So saying everyone is benefiting is a bit disingenuous. Of that 69%, over half well and truly don't have any room in their budgets to save.

a reply to: Bicent

A lot. Not allot.

a reply to: toysforadults

what's unsustainable is the flipping insane wages of the "managers". if you aren't in the upper echelons in the corporate world, if you ain't hurting yet, you probably will be soon. but, continue on blaming your parents and grandparents...
here's the sad facts that you seem to want to overlook.
many of those boomers will have paid into that social security system, and pension plans, but will pass on before they get anything out of it. you're danged lucky if you happen to live long enough to retire.
and by the way, it seems like the boomers of my age have been paying high taxes to provide medical care, housing, food stamps and all the rest to those many, many illegitimate and children of divorced parents... even when ourselves and our children needed and we had no way to provide for them. one financial scam after another came along, each one harvesting a little more of whatever wealth we may have accumulated both in savings, our retirement funds, our home values...
and ya know what, I was on these boards a few years ago, whining, only, I think I had a much better reason to be whining, ya see, I was laid up with a broken ankle, which the hospital was kind enough to throw a splint on and send me home with a referral to a surgeon who, since we didn't have any insurance was demanding a few thousand dollars down payment before he would do the surgery which I would need to be able to ever walk again. AND PEOPLE WERE TELLING ME THE SAME DANGED THING!!!
the broken ankle was just the grand finale of a problem I was having for a couple of years, I tried to get medical help, but ended up so broke I couldn't pay for the gas to get to work, and quite frankly.... I was sick and tired of falling down while working anyways...
and all the while.... I listened to my state legislators carry on about how they needed to raise the sales tax, the registration fees and licensing fees, property taxes, and on and on.... to pay for the raising cost of not medicare... but medicaid!!
I sacrificed, or should I say, I had my ability, to be able to walk through a danged grocery store and do my own grocery shopping.... to help pay for the needs of those who were "less fortunate", who found it easier to bail out of their marriage when things got a little rocky, or never even bothered to get to know their baby's daddy before they decided to make their baby...
my father paid into the social security system.... he died before he reached retirement age, my brother paid into that system, died before he reached retirement age, my mother died about a year after reaching that age. my husband died before retirement age.... and I paid into it....
I am sure that among us all.... enough money would be left in there to pay my benefits for the short time I have left.

a reply to: toysforadults

My dad was in ww2 and came home different. He drank himself into stupors and committed suicide when I was 13. My mom was left with four kids and we lived in real poverty. We lived in cars and abandoned buildings before it was stylish. Until we could get into a housing project. I started working at 14. You know what I feel, pride that I didn’t succumb to obstacles but overcame them. I’m not rich, but I never went back to the projects.

a reply to: dawnstar

But you are not in denial that the system is fubar so you are not part of the problem

originally posted by: ladyinwaiting
Imagine in years to come, all these giant schools we have now will look so ridiculous! Maybe we can go back to smaller community based schools. It might be a good thing.

Community based schools are contingent on the idea that the community is educated. When you don't have the proper skillset in the area to support teaching, how will people ever learn it?

originally posted by: Bicent
a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

No but I think the world as we know it will end. I won’t speculate war with China, but I suspect since they have been in economics longer than the USA, that they may claim land... or something I dunno. Just chatting on the thread.

They would want there money. If we told them to go pound dirt, we may not just make an enemy with China.

Sure, we'll give them their money, by selling their foreign debt that we own back to them. The US holds a lot of Chinese debt too.

originally posted by: toysforadults
a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

Not yet, we havent fully come into power yet especially in business the boomers and Gen x still run a lot but in a few more years we will be able to start making some changes

It's happening. The biggest issue is that change in the US happens slowly due to how our system is set up. Legislators like Tammy Duckworth give me hope, Zuckerberg is our generations Steve Jobs, just go check out the Bay Area which is the young, trendy, tech center of the country. Eggs are cage free, meats are cruelty free, social safety nets exist, the area is cleaner. Changes in a wide range of areas are happening in market friendly ways.

AR and VR is coming to life, we built social networks, the pain is from an economy that's changing, and is being felt by those who haven't adapted to the new skills employers are looking for.